I Got A Little Cash To Burn.....

[duckman]

[Havok]

midfielder over defender....... always ;)

[sterlingice]

You're training keepers, I presume? Also, what kind of ratings do you get?

If so, you don't really need the defense help as those guys will do the heavy lifting. So, yeah, like Havok said, go with the middie.

Replacing Lopins seems the obvious choice since he doesn't seem to bring much to the table. Bright gives you an offensive boost while Dobbins is your best possession guy. Maybe pick up a second offensive guy with solid playmaking and some passing skill to help boost that offense.

SI

[Brillig]

Hmm. Interesting situation - another solid playmaker isn't going to do a whole lot for you long term, you should be looking at excellent, minimum. Currently, 21+ excellents seem to be going around $100k, so a little judicious shopping should be able to land you one, hopefully with a decent secondary.

That said, I'm not sure I'd spend the money right now - you also want to be saving towards getting a solid coach - that'll make the biggest impact to your finances I think. It's a little frustrating to not be able to improve your team, but waiting might be the smart play.

[duckman]

That said, I'm not sure I'd spend the money right now - you also want to be saving towards getting a solid coach - that'll make the biggest impact to your finances I think. It's a little frustrating to not be able to improve your team, but waiting might be the smart play.

Interesting. Are you talking about a solid trainer coach with solid leadership?

[Brillig]

Well, that's the ideal of course, but probably more than you want to bite off. Hell, it's not even something I've done, so that might give you an idea of it's necessity. What you *do* want, though, is a solid trainer. Probably with poor leadership if you're going to buy an external coach. ($269k). The alternative would be to try to convert an internal candidate, but looking at your squad, you'd need to transfer one in, then wait a season, and then pay $500-$800k to convert.

Now that I think on it some more, that might be a good alternative - look for someone to spend that $150k on, but make sure they have passable leadership and at least passable experience (if you're lucky, a lot more). Then when you're ready to sell another keeper, you should be able to parlay that money into trainee(s)+new coach.

[ibnsgirl]

I would agree on the coach angle. I'm only a few seasons ahead of you, duckman, and I can assure you that coaches make all of the difference. Tony suggested I get a better really early on, which I did, but he was only passable, and I still feel the effects of him on my training program.

If I remember correctly, the passable coach, who I obviously recruited externally, was my first purchase. I hung onto him for 2.5 seasons. By that time, my current trainer, bought for his exp/leadership as well as his pm ability, was ready to promote. He is a solid trainer. It cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $700k to make this guy with excellent experience coach.

The passable coach still haunts me in that under his command, my scorers took forever to pop. It would take 12+ weeks, even for the younguns. That hurt my training profits twofold: 1) I ended up training older guys who take longer, and 2) I was trying to sell older guys. I'm only left with one guy, Dorde, from that coach, but he should be at least one pop ahead of where he is now.

So, the moral of this story would have to be: if you can find someone, try to get a future coach and then hoard money so that you've got the reserves to upgrade as soon as he becomes eligable.

[duckman]

Okay, I put a bid down on a middie with excellent experience and passable leadership. He has a pretty good skill set and is pretty young (30) for a future coach. I only put down $5000, but I expect the bidding to pick up.

[Tellistto]

He'll likely top 300k, just so you know. Defenders with solid exp and passable leadership hit 350k rather easily from what I've been seeing. You might be better off looking for a guy with passable experience as they'll not be quite as in demand, because of the need for them to pop to solid. This is also a good idea since most likely that player will be a starter for you anyways.

Tell

[duckman]

He'll likely top 300k, just so you know. Defenders with solid exp and passable leadership hit 350k rather easily from what I've been seeing. You might be better off looking for a guy with passable experience as they'll not be quite as in demand, because of the need for them to pop to solid. This is also a good idea since most likely that player will be a starter for you anyways.

Tell

I'm hoping that the other teams will underbid him keeping it under $150k, but I realize that I may not get him if he goes over my personal limit.

[sterlingice]

I'll play devil's advocate here- jonesing for a passable+ leadership coach at that level is throwing money away. You need to build up your midfield so that cash ($700K+) spent on him will actually do something. That money could instead be spent on buying 3 excellent middies and you'd have a better midfield at all times regardless of team spirit.

As for the claim that strikers took 12 weeks to pop with a passable trainer- there's gotta be something else going on there. It should take 1-2 weeks more, depending on age, to pop. They must have been older trainees to begin with and would have taken 10 weeks to pop with a solid trainer.

That said, a solid trainer is a must- that's still 1-2 weeks per trainee. Not as big a deal with keepers since you only have two, but that's still a lot of money being thrown away and the $269K will be recouped fairly quickly in the long run.

I've always been of the belief that team spirit just isn't that important early on. Even if you pump up your team spirit to gain an extra level of midfield, which is huge at that level, you could have spent that money just improving your middies and had the same effect as well as having player who don't depreciate like a coach does (ie you can't sell a coach when you're ready to upgrade but you can sell 3x excellent middies)

SI

[MikeVick7]

I second what SI said. Most teams in VI just really don't know what they are doing, so if you can put together a solid training program and make a few wise upgrades like the ones he talked about in the midfield the you should be able to dominate.

In my one and a half seasons in VI, (took over a crappy team mid-season) I never lost a game and this was w/o a coach having good leadership.

I'm actually just converting my first coach that will have anything above poor leadership for the first time this year in V. I've finished 2nd twice w/o one so it just hasn't been that important in the lower levels.

[ibnsgirl]

As usual, SI, very good points! I hadn't thought of the resale angle quite like that.

As for the claim that strikers took 12 weeks to pop with a passable trainer- there's gotta be something else going on there. It should take 1-2 weeks more, depending on age, to pop. They must have been older trainees to begin with and would have taken 10 weeks to pop with a solid trainer.
I bought the guys as 17 yo's, but you are right in that there could have been something else going on in there. I don't what I would've been doing wrong, but I'd like to hope that the HT dieties got whatever hatred of me out of their system.

[duckman]

After watching the player with passable experience shot up to $400k, I decided to take up SI's advice and grab a player to replace Lopins. I managed to grab him for about market value ($100k). Here is my new addition:

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>Santiago Pérez (66159583) http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/images/icons/player/bruised.gif
20 years, passable (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skillshort&ll=6#skillshort) form, bruised, but playing </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>A pleasant guy (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=gentleness&ll=2#gentleness) who is balanced (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=aggressiveness&ll=2#aggressiveness) and upright (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=honesty&ll=3#honesty).
Has disastrous (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=1#skill) experience and weak (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skillshort&ll=4#skillshort) leadership abilities.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Nationality: </TD><TD>Uruguay (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/menu.asp?action=changeLeagueSystem&leagueSystemID=28) </TD></TR><TR><TD noWrap>Total Skill Index (TSI): </TD><TD>1 290</TD></TR><TR><TD>Wage: </TD><TD>816 US$/week including 20% Bonus </TD></TR><TR><TD>Owner: </TD><TD>Oklahoma United (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/teamDetails.asp?teamID=224244) </TD></TR><TR><TD>Warnings: </TD><TD>0 </TD></TR><TR><TD>Injuries: </TD><TD>Bruised </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Stamina: </TD><TD>excellent (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=8#skill) </TD><TD>Goalkeeping: </TD><TD>disastrous (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=1#skill) </TD></TR><TR><TD>Playmaking: </TD><TD>solid (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=7#skill) </TD><TD>Passing: </TD><TD>inadequate (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=5#skill) </TD></TR><TR><TD>Winger: </TD><TD>poor (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=3#skill) </TD><TD>Defending: </TD><TD>weak (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=4#skill) </TD></TR><TR><TD>Scoring: </TD><TD>weak (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=4#skill) </TD><TD>Set Pieces: </TD><TD>weak (http://www59.hattrick.org/Common/gameRules.asp?find=labels&lt=skill&ll=4#skill) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Career Goals: </TD><TD>1 </TD></TR><TR><TD>Career Hattricks: </TD><TD>0 </TD></TR><TR><TD>League goals this season: </TD><TD>0 </TD></TR><TR><TD>Cup goals this season: </TD><TD>0 </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

He is a decent upgrade from Lopins. :)